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How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

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Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#91

Post by jameshilliard »

FussyZeus wrote: post #17
dannyr wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dislike Facebook but using it means you should agree with how they monetize their business.

The network effects of sites like Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Twitter oftentimes mean taking the ethical stance and "not being part of it" can create serious harm to your business/career/vocation. There's a reason Instagram Influencer and YouTuber are, despite the sniggering of many people, real jobs that earn tons of money for those skilled in plying the craft.

This is especially true in a lot of developing countries, it's so bad Facebook is effectively considered the internet in many parts of the world. Just look at their ridiculously anti-competitive internet.org/free basics service which is quite dangerous due to the extreme network effect it creates by blocking nearly all smaller 3rd party websites for most users on that service(even though there are some search engines available they will be of little use unless a user can access the pages in the search results).

Every tool available should be used to fight Facebook's world takeover plans, including Ad-blocking aggressively. In cases where it's not practical to entirely avoid Facebook the most ethical option is to aggressively block all their monetization paths so as not to further their dangerous expansion ambitions.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#92

Post by aerique »

tsimionescu wrote: post #70
abhiminator wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cannot agree more. Quit Facebook and its sister service completely (talking about WhatsApp; never really got around to using Instagram) after the 'View As' feature exploit last year that led to 50 mil user accounts' data being exposed [0], and I must say, I've never felt more calmer, tranquil or better, mental health wise. I feel our brains could do much better with a little less of constant bombardment of highlight-…

Quitting Facebook itself would help with what you are saying, but I am curious what you replaced WhatsApp/Messenger with. For example, I have good friends in other countries, and sending pictures and short texts is one of the best ways to stay in contact. We do talk over the phone occasionally, but not having a simple way to send pictures or links would pull us much further apart. Sure, email could be an option, but…

From before the Facebook acquisition WhatsApp had gotten really embedded in The Netherlands (and the rest of Europe?) as a free replacement for paid SMS service. Not only because it was free but also more convenient for sending long messages, pictures, etc. compared to the MMS hellhole.

I've been trying to get people on Signal but it's a struggle especially for older people used to WhatsApp. For a lot of them WhatsApp → Signal is a big step even though (for us) the apps are pretty much similar.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#93

Post by jameshilliard »

grogenaut wrote: post #43
crispinb wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's some justice to that argument for access to strictly discretionary sites, but Facebook has been so 'successful' that it's now approaching monopolistic power, & is something close to required infrastructure. There are an increasing number of online contacts which literally offer no alternative. I have a few fake facebook accounts I'll use where I literally have no alternative, none of which have real data asso…

Can you give some specific examples of places with no contact alternatives? Not really grokking this point. Do you mean they (the business) can't be contacted any other way, and facebook is their only presence?

Look at the developing world where services like internet.org/free basics exist, there are effectively no realistic alternatives for many people.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#94

Post by atemerev »

Nextgrid wrote: post #62
paggle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s like being a poker player, but you probably get paid more.

At least poker doesn't have a negative effect on society, given you're only playing against people who opt-in by playing the game. This in comparison is fighting against people who just want a bit of peace and less sewage being dumped in their Facebook timeline.

Being on Facebook is opt-in. I do use FB Messenger for talking to relatives, but that's about all.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#95

Post by edf13 »

1propionyl wrote: post #53

I'm surprised I haven't seen a single comment say what ought to be the obvious: the easiest way to never see Facebook ads is to just not use Facebook. I should hope I'm preaching to the choir, I'm sure, but... quitting really isn't as hard as you tell yourself it is. It's not as essential as you think it is.

Except your not actually blocking Facebook ads are you?

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#96

Post by godzillabrennus »

dannyr wrote: post #31
FussyZeus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The network effects of sites like Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Twitter oftentimes mean taking the ethical stance and "not being part of it" can create serious harm to your business/career/vocation. There's a reason Instagram Influencer and YouTuber are, despite the sniggering of many people, real jobs that earn tons of money for those skilled in plying the craft.

True. I'm currently in the Philippines and a lot of businesses don't have their own web sites and just have Facebook and Instagram pages. I just browse Facebook without logging in but it has a huge dialog asking me to log in. Of course there are exceptions to the rule but most people are not IG Influencers and Youtubers so opting out of these social media services are not as painful.

Gotta love pinoy marketing.

Treats.

Not just a class of food but a brand for gas stations to sell food.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#97

Post by yoran »

aerique wrote: post #92
tsimionescu wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quitting Facebook itself would help with what you are saying, but I am curious what you replaced WhatsApp/Messenger with. For example, I have good friends in other countries, and sending pictures and short texts is one of the best ways to stay in contact. We do talk over the phone occasionally, but not having a simple way to send pictures or links would pull us much further apart. Sure, email could be an option, but…

From before the Facebook acquisition WhatsApp had gotten really embedded in The Netherlands (and the rest of Europe?) as a free replacement for paid SMS service. Not only because it was free but also more convenient for sending long messages, pictures, etc. compared to the MMS hellhole. I've been trying to get people on Signal but it's a struggle especially for older people used to WhatsApp. For a lot of them WhatsAp…

Agree. Outside the small tech bubble around me, the vast majority of people use WhatsApp for all their messaging communication.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#98

Post by wtmt »

thatswrong0 wrote: post #25
iamkroot wrote: post #14

I continue to be surprised at how few people have heard of fbpurity[1], a fantastic browser extension that blocks all Facebook ads and lets you filter out specific types of content (links, memories, etc.). It's dramatically improved my Facebook experience; I now see exactly the type of content that I want to see (updates on friend's lives) and nothing more. [1] https://www.fbpurity.com/

I mean one look at the website kind of tells you why. The extension could be a lot less intrusive as well - just compare it to uBlock Origin for example. There doesn't need to be an onboarding message. I don't need to see "F.B. Purity hid:" prominently in the middle of my feed - just put that at the bottom right of the screen in gray text or in the extension. Etc. I'm probably going to uninstall it because it makes F…

You could check out Social Fixer. [1] It's been around for several years, is free and offers many features. The creator/maintainer of Social Fixer was also interviewed in Ars Technica.

[1]: https://socialfixer.com/index.html

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#99

Post by edf13 »

veselin wrote: post #42

Yes. This is horrible behavior from Facebook. I had a similar problem finding a working extension that blocks fbclk id. Well, I found one, but I am not sure I would want to share it, because the facebook engineering team may go after it as well. This also renders nil the argument about "don't use the product if you don't like their (ad) practices". Tracking across websites without consent is illegal in most of Europe…

Devils Advocate... why is it horrible behaviour from Facebook? It's their product which needs to be paid for by Ads and they need to prevent Ad Blockers from stopping these from being served. So in their defence - any technical work around is fair on their part.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#100

Post by usrusr »

iamkroot wrote: post #14

I continue to be surprised at how few people have heard of fbpurity[1], a fantastic browser extension that blocks all Facebook ads and lets you filter out specific types of content (links, memories, etc.). It's dramatically improved my Facebook experience; I now see exactly the type of content that I want to see (updates on friend's lives) and nothing more. [1] https://www.fbpurity.com/

I prefer to keep my Facebook experience as painful as Mark Zuckerberg intended it to be. (minus notifications of course)
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